#OTANSWERS: COWBOYS QBS PART 2: #MINICAMP PLUS-UP

If you read Part 1 of this #OTANSWERS miniseries, then you know Brian Schottenheimer’s QB rooms have put him in a blender. 

But this isn’t about whether Russ could, would, or should have been allowed to cook—we’re not here for Sopranos-sad endings in Year 1 of #SCHOPPENHEIMER’s Dallas experiment. 

Looking deeper throughout the respective scenes—and forgetting how Eric Mangini’s preferred nickname (Laveranues Coles coined him “The Penguin” upon arrival in Gotham) became a meme after browning out on Lake Erie—we arrive under the first spotlight on this stage: 

There is no “Mangenius” without the Cowboys’ new head ball coach. 

On the strength of a 6-win improvement, Mangini—then the NFL’s youngest head coach—finished second (with an identical 10-6 record) to friend-of-the-family Sean Payton in 2006 Coach of the Year voting. And though the Saints improved by 7 wins, one could argue that the award should have gone to the third-place finisher, Schottenheimer’s father, Marty, who captained the league’s winningest ship in Philip Rivers’ first (Pro Bowl) season as a starter with LaDanian Tomlinson delivering a singular run to the MVP record book. 

The connective tissue only gets more fascinating: 

OG Schotty and the Chargers let Drew Brees take his mangled shoulder to NOLA as Young Schotty designed an offense around the multiple surgeries and mechanical overhaul to Chad Pennington’s chicken wing that resulted in Comeback Player of the Year honors over even Brees’ MVP2 season. 

Note: it would be insane not to pause here at the beginning of Brian Schottenheimer’s OC journey and reflect on his name being thrown in the hat as a potential Nick Saban HBC replacement with the Miami Dolphins. Saban, who replaced Dave Wannstedt (and interim Jim Bates), who replaced Jimmy Johnson. Saban, who thought he was getting Brees before Dolphins’ team doctors changed Saturday down south forever. 

And Roger Goodell couldn’t have handed in a better script than Tony Sparano—a former Bill Parcells’ lieutenant in Dallas—taking over Miami in 2008, winning the division with Pennington under center after New York jettisoned him in favor of Brett Favre as the final stubble on their $140M offseason facelift. 

It’s easy to focus on the slide—losing 4 of 5 down the stretch to miss the playoffs. It’s hard to ignore Favre hitting 70 percent or better in 7 of the first 11 games—and being a single completion away in three others from making it 10 of 11—including a 6-touchdown Week 4 and a 5-game midseason winning streak that pushed New York to 8-3 and started the tabloids talking premature Super Bowl season. It’s almost impossible to believe that the Jets would have to take responsibility for the team not listing Favre on mandatory injury reports despite a torn right biceps tendon that precipitated the downfall. 

Schotty was then retained by another defensive mastermind who managed to allow his foot fetish to outshine back-to-back AFC Championship Game appearances—including a 2010 Divisional Round box score and bottom line that magically show Mark Sanchez outdueling Tom Brady. As Rex Ryan and Sanchez remain characters for all time, also lost in the QB shuffle were Thomas Jones setting and resetting team rushing records into the last bit of jump-cut grit Tomlinson had left in his Hall of Fame legs.

From the crush of the Big Apple, Schotty brings all the f-bombing swagger without a hint of the bullshit bluster. When you look at working around a quarterback’s physical limitations, you don’t have to squint to see how Cooper Rush kept you in games or how the shape the gameplan evolves around Will Grier—who has a little more juice—should he be forced into action. The bigger hope, as we debated on the pod, is that you can almost start to allow yourself to daydream the best of Joe Milton like a young and still-wild Brett Favre on the run and on the rise should Dak’s hammy fall the bleep off. 

From every single one of his stops, Schotty intimately understands managing the health of Dak Prescott—starting with the team simply not rolling him out there week after week to play more than hurt, a la T-E-X-T-S Favre and amateur snowboarder Andrew Luck.

Milton likely never morphs into Josh Allen—essentially the era-enhanced evolution of Ben Roethlisberger—but Schotty does have history of leaning into elite offensive line play and/or finding creative ways to design league-leading ground games around the limitations of his backfields entire. 

Beyond what a Mark couldn’t make a defense respect or a Russ couldn’t see through the trees: 

The Chicago Bears bet on Cedric Benson over Thomas Jones. Tomlinson was released by the Chargers and thought washed. Chris Carson was a 7th Round pick. 

Parenthesis not included: I present to you whomever runs harder with his NFL life on the line between Javonte Williams and Miles Sanders; burnt orange burner and OROY sleeper, Jaydon Blue; hangry Phil Mafah. Running behind a retooled line featuring back-to-back-to-back 1st Round talent.

Say what you want about three playoff appearances and two Wild Card crashouts in Seattle from 2018-2020. The Seahawks ranked 32/23/17 in pass attempts but 5/4/3 in passing touchdowns—with reports that Schottenheimer only really merged 30 percent of his stuff around Ciara’s husband’s kitchen. 

And if you click on that ESPN report you’ll also note lines about having to scrap his planned offense for Favre. ACL-ravaged Sam Bradford. Schotty’s formative years with Brees in San Diego and time spent later with Luck in Indianapolis. 

It’s one of the section headers that grabs me: 

Schottenheimer’s best shot. 

It certainly wasn’t in Seattle—not with an internal power struggle amidst a dynasty that never was. 

Ditto St. Louis with tread-weary Steven Jackson in his last season of relevance where Schotty appeared to be rebuilding Bradford despite 63/666/3 Danny Amendola masquerading as WR1. 

In between, you’d be kidding yourself about Luck-less Indy in 2017 (a year after our battered Andrew set then-career highs in completion percentage and QBR). Though Schotty wasn’t OC and Frank Gore remained relatively ageless and Jacoby Brissett continued serving as many a pundit’s favorite next-man-up (for the better part of a decade now) and TY Hilton was one of the most underrated big-play little fellas of his era, after tight end Jake Doyle the next-best eligible was 12 games and 26 catches of Donte Moncrief. 

All the above and more somehow occurred before Duval 2021 had Urban Meyer named the worst head coaching hire in NFL history in no less than anointed-next-great-one Trevor Lawrence’s nuked rookie season. 

Add it all up and there just ain’t much Schotty hasn’t seen entering his age-52 season, having spent half his life roaming NFL sidelines.  

Except a single one of them with mirrored talent like CD and GP. 

Dawson and I both believe that a healthy Dak Prescott is good enough to win it all if the team comes together in all three phases. Certainly, he’s far better than his preseason PFF ranking. 

Yet the path to the 2025 playoffs, where Jones Fam believes anything can happen and the best team is often, ultimately, the healthiest one, likely means counting on Dak less when it comes to counting stats. 

A week here or there to buy Dak extra time should he get nicked up immediately brings the Week 10 bye—bookended by what could be plucky, take-for-granted-type dubs (Cardinals/Raiders)—to the forefront. 

Ironically, a 3-games-in-11-days run (Raiders/Eagles/Chiefs) rolls into Thanksgiving coming out of it. 

And then accounting for the league office’s twisted sense of player safety, there’s also a 3-games-in-12-days December slate ((Vikings/Chargers/Commanders)—punctuated by 2-in-5 Christmas Day charade. 

Sandwiched in between? 

Another Thursday Night Prime Video showdown (Lions). 

Dak will want to be out there leading the way on the game’s biggest stages. Cowboys Nation may have to make nice with some 50/50 Milton moonshots for one of the holidays if they want their $60M man at his peak when they truly matter most. 

Now before any of you new #HowBoutWow fans accuse me of impressing NBA-sham-level load management on the NFL’s biggest brand, what I’m fundamentally preaching here is two-fold: 

Patience. 

Meaning if Dak’s surgically repaired hamstring grabs at training camp, simply not tempting fate because it’s the Eagles unveiling a banner in Week 1. Repeat Weeks 1-18. 

Practicality. 

Meaning hunting for ways to weaponize Milton in specific game action with tremendous intent on a near-weekly basis. Putting him in positions to help the team succeed in short yardage and red zone is the obvious starting point. Ask Belichick and the boys about all that extra time opponents have to waste on backup quarterback run game. Dawson is in on the Hail Mary, too. But look at this throw from Justin Fields to George Pickens—the type of play design that could steal three points while also providing layered game reps that aren’t Week 18 against a playoff-bound opponent pulling its starters so the kid is more ready to go should he have to tote the full gameplan over four quarters down the road. 

Look, Dak isn’t mincing words when it comes to his goals. 

“I wanna win a championship. Be damned if it’s just for my legacy, for this team, for my personal being, for my sanity,” he said.

It’s Super Bowl or bust from here on out. 

Patrick Walker’s excellent recap on Dak’s mode also includes this auspicious note: 

“Exiting minicamp, Prescott was able to do everything the position requires, including scramble plays, with no restrictions,” Walker wrote. 

For the first time in Schotty’s career, every level of the offense is shaping up to bring backup to the All-22 party. And the key to a deep run that defies what Vegas and haters alike still see as limits to the 2025 Dallas Cowboys may be what’s measured in their exit interviews after others have helped shoulder the load.